• SKIING THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA PART 1
• GETTING INTO WINTER CLIMBING SHAPE WITH FA GUIDE CHAD PEELE
• CARSTENSZ PYRAMID THE HEROES PROJECT EXPEDITION IN THREE ACTS
• KYLE MILLER ON FIRST FILM PREMIERE AND TRANSITIONING FROM SKI BUM TO PRO ATHLETE
• BE FIRST RECIPIENT JON TURK RECAPS HIS EPIC, FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ELLESMERE ISLAND
• TAHOE GUIDE MEETING DAY 2 THE GUIDE BUILT PROCESS

Bill Long unfurling the Alaskan flag on Mount Vinson, 12/18/1966

By Jake Norton

In 2011, Antarctica is relatively unknown by the outside world. Rarely visited, it is a pristine landscape of severe austerity. Few ever get the chance to visit it, and life there – even today – is rustic and unforgiving.

In 1966, it’s austerity, severity, and inhospitability must have been magnified a hundredfold. In that year, legends of American mountaineering (and Eddie Bauer outfitting history) ventured deep into the interior to explore one of the last, great unknown ranges of the world: The Ellsworth Mountains.

Led by expedition veteran Nick Clinch (who led the successful 1958 American ascent of Gasherbrum, also outfitted by Eddie Bauer), the team consisted of Pete Schoening, Bill Long, Charlie Hollister, Sam Silverstein, John Evans, Barry Corbet, Bob Lee, Dick Walstrom, Brian Marts and Eiichi Fukushima. With that powerhouse team, it’s understandable that they accomplished great things during the winter of 1966-67. First off, all members of the team reached the 16,066 foot summit of Mount Vinson, the highest peak on the continent, with the first team topping out on December 18, 1966. Along the way back down the mountain, they also climbed Mount Shinn, the third highest peak on the continent.

From there, it was off to a bit more challenging objective: Mount Tyree, the second highest peak. A mere 40 meters shorter than Vinson, Tyree is different beast: steep, jagged, and unforgiving. The team saw no easy way up it. The optimal route seemed to be via the summit of Mount Gardner, the fourth highest peak. As Nick Clinch later wrote, the route “seemed energetic but we thought it would go.” After climbing Gardner, the team made several false starts on Tyree. On January 6, 1967, John Evans and Barry Corbet found the key, gained access to Tyree’s jagged Northwest Ridge, and after more than 15 leads of fifth class rock and ice and some 22 hours of climbing, John and Barry stood on the summit of Tyree. The team had climbed the top four peaks on the continent!

The team collectively gained two additional first ascents in the following days, climbing Long-Gables and Mount Ostenso, putting their total to six first ascents in one expedition.

Simply put: Amazing.

Over the years, through my climbing and involvement with the American Mountaineering Museum (www.mountaineeringmuseum.org), I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Nick Clinch, John Evans, and others, and it’s an honor to be going down to walk a little in their famous footsteps. And, we’ve even got a little bit of their expedition here with us: The remains of the Alaskan flag that Bill Long hoisted on the summit of Vinson in 1966. It lay there for 13 long, lonely, windblown years until the next ascent of the peak in 1979. One of those climbers, Peter von Gizycki, retreived the flag. It eventually made its was back to John Evans – in 2008 – who generously donated it to the American Mountaineering Museum. It’s now on short-term loan to us to make one final journey onto the slopes of Vinson, and hopefully to the top. If we’re successful, it will be fun tribute to an amazingly successful pioneering expedition by Nick Clinch, his team, and Eddie Bauer.

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